Have you ever had a time in your life where you believed God was calling you to step out in faith? Maybe it was to place your trust in His grace and salvation. Maybe it was to end a relationship you cherished. Maybe it was to give generously to a church or a project or a person.

Most of us, if not all of us, have had an experience where God was calling us to step out in faith and all of us know that with any step of faith, we are going to experience trials, hardships and persecution.

The enemy of our souls, Satan, is real and he wants to prevent us from living our lives for God’s glory. He wants to do everything he can to keep us from taking steps of faith, ultimately, proclaiming the goodness and greatness of God in our lives. If you are not living your life for God, then the enemy is content with that and will not see you as a threat, but the moment you start taking steps of faith in obedience to God is the moment Satan will begin to attack you.

How does he attack? Let me just give you three ways.

One, he attacks through personal issues. He will go after your home life, your relationship with your spouse, your kids. He will attack your finances, your workplace, even your animals. Last year, when we launched Front Range Christian Church, we had multiple personal attacks. Our house flooded 3 times, our cars broke multiple times, someone broke into our car, my wife’s workplace was a unique challenge and the list can go on and on. It was hard, but it was expected because that’s one way Satan attacks.

A second way Satan attacks is through the words of outsiders. Anytime we take a step of faith in our journey with God, people will have an opinion. They will either agree or disagree with us whether they are a part of or lives or not. When we announced we were launching a second campus, people who aren’t even a part of our church decided to share with us their opinion. Some were positive and others were…well…attacks of the enemy. It can be frustrating having others who are not a part of your life looking in and making conclusions about your decisions, but instead of getting upset at the person, recognize it as an attack of Satan and fight the real enemy.

A third way the enemy attacks is through the words of those “close” to you. Not only do you hear the conclusions of others outside of your life, but there are those who feel they have an inside track to your life. They may be relatives, people at church, co-workers or neighbors. These are people who feel close to you so they feel they have a responsibility to speak into your life, your family, your beliefs about God. These attacks can hurt the most because they come from people you feel should trust you and believe in you more than most. As with the second type of attacks, we must see these attacks for what they are. These are not mean people voicing their opinion, this is Satan using others to discourage and sidetrack us from the mission God has for us. Stay focused. Don’t give in. Don’t allow the attacks of the enemy from prohibiting you to live out God’s call on your life.

So what happens when you experience Satan’s attacks? How are we to respond?

3 Principles I live by.

1. Focus on what you know not what you don’t know

2. Surround yourself with truth tellers not fortune tellers

3. Be an umpire

Over the next week, I will explore these principles in greater detail. Principles that can help us stand on truth, live in freedom and continue to take the steps of faith God is calling us to take.

Have you ever asked a question you regretted immediately after it came out of your mouth? Yeah, me too.

The other day I was at a meeting with multiple church planters when a person came up to one of them and asked the unpardonable question…

“How many people come to your church?”

Immediately when it was asked my heart went out to him. The question you should never ask a church planter was asked.

You see, there is rarely, if ever, any good that comes from asking this question and to be completely honest, I want to write an entire blog about how damaging this question can be to the church planter and to the one asking, even with the best intentions. Instead, I am going to give you some encouragement on questions you can….no, you should ask a church planter.

1. Ask him “How is your family doing?”

Many times a church planter’s family goes through more spiritual attacks than anyone else. Satan knows if he can destroy the love, the unity, the foundation of the family, then he will destroy the most important ministry the church planter has…his family.

2. Ask him “Is there anything I can do to serve the church?”

Many of the challenges a church planter is faced with would be resolved if more people stepped up to serve. Whether it is in the parking lot, taking care of administrative needs, caring for the kids in the children’s ministry, most of the areas that keep church planters up at night are things that people could help alleviate. Even if you are not a part of the church, think about how you can serve the church in some form or fashion.

3. Ask him “How can I pray for you?”

Prayer is our most powerful weapon. The greatest impact you can make in the life of a church planter is to pray for him, his family and the church. Pray against the attacks of the enemy. Pray for his health. Pray for wisdom. Pray for the church to grow in community and in numbers. Pray for the church to have an impact in the world. Pray Jesus would be glorified!

Next time you are thinking about a church planter, ask him one of these questions. Next time you are talking to a church planter…don’t ask him how many people he has coming to his church, but instead, ask him one of these three questions. You will see him light up as he see people genuinely caring for him, his family and the church.

Join us for our eleventh gathering as a launch team for Front Range Christian Church. We will begin around 6:30 MST (8:30 Eastern, 5:30 Pacific). If the video does not start for you, please refresh and try again.

Many of you know we were throwing a baby shower for the church a few weeks back. We received some great items from some generous people. Each of you who were able to give not only blessed the church because you helped us save money, but more importantly, you blessed the 50 kids who were in our Family Ministry rooms at the preview service on Dec 8th.

I can’t thank you enough for your generosity and all you have done to bless Front Range CC. Thank you!!

In addition, many of you were keeping track of the items that were still left on the registry, even after we had the baby shower. Many of you have asked if you can still purchase some of those items and if we are still in need…the simple answer is YES and YES!!!

As the end of the year comes to a close, many people are thinking about year end giving and how to come out ahead on their taxes. Many are also thinking about how to bless their favorite organizations.

We wanted to make sure and give each person a chance to capitalize on both of those desires; therefore we have consolidated the Amazon wish list and we only have 10 different items on the list.

The price range varies from just a few dollars to a few hundred. If you would like to give something to FRCC from this list (completely tax deductible), then click on the following link…

I realized this week that I never gave an update on how our first preview service went…soooo, here are five thoughts I have in regards to what we experienced at Front Range Christian Church on Dec 8th.

1. We have an amazing launch team!

It was clear, based on talking with the people who showed up for the service, that our launch team is doing the hard work of building relationships. Most of the people who came did not show up because of a mailer they were sent or because we had great giveaways…they came because they had built friendships with people who are already a part of FRCC. Building relationships is the number one way to grow a church..that was proven for us that day.

2. People will show up even in bad weather!

My greatest fear came true at the first service of FRCC…the weather was terrible. With the temperature reaching a high of five degrees and snow falling hard and steady, I could not have imagined a worse day to start…and yet, people showed up. In fact, one couple walked about a mile to make it. People won’t allow anything to get in the way of building community and experiencing the presence of God.

3. Follow-up is more important than we can imagine!

One of the reasons church planters go with the preview service model is to test their follow-up systems. These systems are instrumental in helping people get connected and feel cared for. Our follow-up was AMAZING!!! Whether it was hand-written notes to each person who filled out a card, a letter to those who gave financially for the first time, an e-mail to those who indicated they received Christ…we followed up with each person in some form or fashion. Our team believes in the importance of following up with people….and it worked.

4. FRCC is starting off as an extremely generous church!

One of our core values is contagious generosity. We just believe we are supposed to be generous. This value played out well on the 8th. Not only did we have over 80 volunteers show up to give of their time, but we were able to implement a new idea from the beginning. Each worship service, we will count how many people we had and give $1 for each person to a local organization. This is just one way we can bless our town and one way we can live out this contagious generosity.

5. There are no previews for God!

We had no clue what to expect with a preview service. To us, it was a chance to test systems, grow our launch team and see how everything was going to run and what would need to change. To God, this was a chance to bring more people to faith. In fact, we had 9 people indicate on a card they wanted to receive Christ…9!!!! That is incredible and it simply reminded me that God is always trying to draw people to Himself and He will use whatever opportunity He can, including a preview service.

Dec 8th, 2013 will go down as a day to remember not just for my family and I, but for Front Range Christian Church. We were so blessed to see so many people serving, a bunch of people show up to build community and so many give their lives to Christ. The day could not have been better.